The second Pontiac Township High School Community Café event held in the Dr. Ronald J. Yates Memorial Library at the high school Thursday evening was made up of parents, high school staff, board members and members of the public who mostly had one topic on their mind: the attendance incentive program.

The topic started with a presentation from PTHS Assistant Principal Brian Hensley, which showed data regarding the increase in attendance over the first quarter last year. Specifically, it said 379 students missed a day or less of school in the first quarter this year and were able to exempt out of a final if their parents and teacher approved.

The issue amongst parents at the meeting was mostly voiced by Linda Lambert who said that although she appreciated the data showing more students were in school this quarter, she wanted the exemption policy to include those achieving students who had an A going into a class, but because they had missed the allotted amount of days, were exempt from the attendance incentives.

“I believe it does effect GPA, it happened last semester,” said Lambert. “I know of students who had an A in a class and because they didn’t get perfect attendance, they had to take a final. Other students who could have fallen into a B, C, or D grade didn’t have to take the final and got a higher grade. It affects class rank and it affects GPA. I am not asking you to change your decision, but I am asking that you award the producers the same way that you award the perfect attendance.”

Her suggestion was that if a student is getting an A in the class, they should also be exempt from their final exams. Her reasoning was that students who have an A in the class should be given the same opportunity as those with perfect attendance with lower grades. She didn’t want to make it appear that she wasn’t happy with the attendance increasing, but she said this policy produces a negative effect.

“I think you have a great point,” said Hensley. “I can tell you that honestly, no one has ever approached me and there was no phone call I’ve received which stated that point. I have not heard the example, I have not had a student come and talk to me about that, not even colleagues or teachers. That’s a great point and something that needs to be thought out. Maybe a discussion between myself and Mr. Bohm should take place in the future.”

Lambert responded by saying many parents she has talked to have voiced their opinion with the attendance staff, which Bohm said probably isn’t the best idea due to the fact that the job of attendance staff is to mark down when a parent calls their child in sick, not the reasoning pertaining to the illness. Bohm said he would invite parents to call him in order to discuss the policy.

Page 2 of 3 - “Give me a call,” he said. “I haven’t heard a word from parents, but we’ve been talking about it. The kids are talking about it, the paper is talking about it, the radio is talking about it and I look at Mrs. Graves and for years the LACC has had this same program. We modeled it right after what they have at LACC.”

Superintendent Jon Kilgore added that prior to the attendance incentive program, LACC actually had to change its policy due to the fact that PTHS students would skip their classes and only attend LACC classes.

Another parent shared a story of her daughter who had missed five hours of school over three days due to doctor’s appointments and felt it was odd that a child who had missed a whole day could still be exempt from a final, but a child who had missed only five hours could not.

Points and counter-points were raised for both sides of the argument before the allotted time for the subject ran out. The last thought was from Greater Livingston County Economic Development Council (GLCEDC) CEO Adam Dontz, who said after talking with many of the business owners in the county, especially those in the manufacturing industry, attendance is a big issue which he hopes would be incentive to continue the discussion on the policy at community café events in the future.

“Much to my surprise, employers have trouble keeping people working at the assembly line. They have trouble getting people to punch in at 8 a.m. They have trouble keeping people there past 5 p.m. if there is a deadline with shipments and orders that need to get out. So, I think the issue of work ethic and showing up and being where we are supposed to be, when we are supposed to be there, it’s something that is not necessarily learned after graduation, but something that start right here at school,” he said. “I don’t know that the plan we have is perfect or that there shouldn’t be modifications. What I really encourage, is an ongoing discussion about how we can improve attendance in our schools because that will attribute to later years in life and to the workforce here in town and that is a front burner issue for our local employers, so please continue on with your discussion on this, because it’s too important to just stop here.”

Kilgore moderated the next topic of discussion on the safety and security in the high school. Although he talked some about modifications the school was making in order to make it easier to navigate for law enforcement with things like mirrors to help provide line of sight around corners, he also asked for thoughts and ideas on things that could be done outside the building in order to make it safer for students. One idea came from Lori Bristow, who suggested a crosswalk be place in front of Illini Avenue.

Page 3 of 3 - “Actually, that was a great idea,” said Kilgore. “It’s something that we had talked about as we’ve experienced students walking and on bikes coming out of the sub division. It’s something we want to provide more safety for.”

Overall, Kilgore said he was happy with how the event turned out. He said going into the event, he knew there would be opposing view points, but he said the topic of the attendance incentive program will be something he hopes to continue in the future because he sees changes that need to be discussed. He also said he really hopes that more parents will come and voice their opinion so that it can be addressed and acknowledged.

“We knew that we were going to be able to share some positive data and the positive results of the program, but we also knew that there are things we need to continue to work on and out of tonight, we got some new ideas for us to consider,” said Kilgore. “We definitely plan to revisit the issue in the future. It was definitely a topic we will continue to discuss.